UK

Take a look at the River Thames in East London now and you would think that it is commercially dead. Where once the banks of the (read more)

Take a look at the River Thames in East London now and you would think that it is commercially dead. Where once the banks of the river were lined with riverside wharves, these have been replaced by or converted to luxury apartments. The mighty London Docks, including the 'Royals', once the largest expanse of enclosed dockland in the world, had all closed by 1983 and have since been redeveloped as Docklands, with a financial centre, London City Airport, the University of East London, houses, shopping and other amenities.

But the commercial life of the river didn't die - it just moved downriver. Tilbury Docks were adapted to handle the new pattern of container ships and Roll-on, Roll-off ferries. New terminals were built with easy access to the M25 and Dartford Tunnel (and later the Queen Elizabeth II bridge).
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The Rough Guide to Great Britain includes: more than 50 color-coded maps featuring every listing; area-by-area chapter highlights; (read more)

The Rough Guide to Great Britain includes: more than 50 color-coded maps featuring every listing; area-by-area chapter highlights; Top 5 boxes; a Things Not to Miss section, and more. Each guide also reviews the best accommodation and restaurants in all price brackets so you are guaranteed to get value for your money. (hide)

The ninth edition of the Rough Guide to Wales is the ultimate travel guide to this incredibly varied country, with stunning photography (read more)

The ninth edition of the Rough Guide to Wales is the ultimate travel guide to this incredibly varied country, with stunning photography throughout. Whether you want to trek the Pembrokeshire Coast Path or let loose at Green Man festival, have a slap-up meal in foodie Abergavenny or chug through the Snowdonia mountains on the Ffestiniog Railway, you'll find all the practical details and inspiring ideas you'll need. Spanning the length and breadth of Wales, from tiny valley towns to bustling cities, this is the most comprehensive guide to the country.

Plan your trip using our colour-coded maps and up-to-date listings on the best places to stay, eat and drink in every corner of Wales. Whether you want detailed background or a quick idea of the highlights of each region, The Rough Guide to Wales has it all. Make the most of your time on Earth[trademark] with The Rough Guide to Wales. (hide)

Discover walks in and around London with this comprehensive, entertaining, 'tell it like it is' Rough Guide, packed with our experts' (read more)

Discover walks in and around London with this comprehensive, entertaining, 'tell it like it is' Rough Guide, packed with our experts' honest and independent recommendations. Whether you plan to stroll through Hampstead Heath, spot deer in Richmond Park or marvel at the views of the city from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, The Rough Guide to Walks in and Around London will help you discover the best places to explore, eat and drink while you discover the capital and its surroundings on foot. (hide)

Have you got what it takes to tackle Radio 4's most fiendish quiz?Question: A fictional criminal psychologist, a former Conservative (read more)

Have you got what it takes to tackle Radio 4's most fiendish quiz?Question: A fictional criminal psychologist, a former Conservative minister, and the eponymous protagonist of a Peter Hedges novel, might all serve on the board alongside some big cheeses. Can you explain?*The Round Britain Quiz is the oldest broadcast quiz anywhere in the world. Created in 1947 it has built and maintained a cult following from across the generations.
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An Ice Age cannibal's skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth century witch bottle... anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota (read more)

An Ice Age cannibal's skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth century witch bottle... anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the mysteries behind them.

Britain is full of ancient wonders: not grand like the Egyptian pyramids, but small, strange places and objects that hint at a deep and enduring relationship with the mystic. Secret Britain offers an expertly guided tour of Britain's most fascinating mysteries: archaeological sites and artefacts that take us deep into the lives of the many different peoples who have inhabited the island over the millennia. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, the wonders include buried treasure, stone circles and geoglyphs, outdoor places of worship, caves filled with medieval carvings, and enigmatic tools to divine the future. (hide)

A personal tour of twenty of the UK's most beguiling houses in this much loved area of western England. Author and architectural (read more)

A personal tour of twenty of the UK's most beguiling houses in this much loved area of western England. Author and architectural historian, Jeremy Musson, and Cotswolds-based photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas, offer privileged access to twenty houses, from castles and manor houses, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mansions, revealing their history, architecture and interiors, in the company of their devoted owners. In the footsteps of artists and designers including Humphry and George Repton, and Victorian visionary, William Morris, who inspired the arts and crafts movement, and others such as Detmar Blow, Norman Jewson, Clough Williams-Ellis and Oliver Hill, we find a series of fascinating country houses of different sizes and atmospheres, which have shaped the English identity. (hide)

Let Secret Liverpool guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Liverpool guide (read more)

Let Secret Liverpool guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Liverpool guide book and let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of an amazing city. Ideal for local inhabitants and curious travellers alike.

The places included in our guides are unusual and unfamiliar, allowing one to step off the beaten track. A brand-new guide, Secret Liverpool features 130 secret and unusual locations. Inside Secret Liverpool :Discover for yourself the haunts of slave traders, privateers and press-gangs, the hideaway of a suspected assassin and the desecrated grave of a self-professed Jack the Ripper, track down the birthplace of rail travel and the oldest pavilion at a first-class cricket ground, marvel at a lifesize replica of the world's first submarine and the original home of the Epsom Derby, be gobsmacked by burial stones older than Stonehenge and one of the earliest human settlements to be found anywhere in the UK, take a turn on John Lennon's first musical instrument and snigger at the sight of Queen Victoria's dildo, meet toads that sing, World War II's best-kept secret and the world's first (and smallest) skyscraper, toast the UK's greatest female athlete in a brew named in her honour or go for a spin on the only purpose-built F1 race track in the country.
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This new edition (the thirteenth) provides a comprehensive description of Sir John Soane's Museum in London's Lincoln's Inn Fields (read more)

This new edition (the thirteenth) provides a comprehensive description of Sir John Soane's Museum in London's Lincoln's Inn Fields and reflects recent changes to the Museum including the immaculate recreation of the Private Apartments, the Lobby off the Breakfast Room, and the Catacombs, all of which were opened after the previous edition went to press. It will serve both as a souvenir and as the most accurate account of Sir John Soane's remarkable creation. (hide)

Why rush through life when you could stop, ponder and truly experience the world around you? This unhurried exploration of the great (read more)

Why rush through life when you could stop, ponder and truly experience the world around you? This unhurried exploration of the great outdoors encourages you to engage all of your senses and fully appreciate the beauty of your surroundings. With the emphasis on experiencing, rather than simply passing through, Slow Adventures asks us to pause for a moment and reconnect with nature. (hide)